When Your Software Development Company Has Your Back: A True Heroic Story

Recently, our developer Holly Gibson saved a manufacturing client from having to recall thousands of extremely expensive scanning units. How? She discovered and solved a display error present in their original unit design.

The client builds scanners that detect defects in the plates of oil tank floors. As technicians work to find any and all defects among the hundreds of plates on oil tank floors, they require a scanner that lets them know the exact coordinates of hazardous discoveries. They have entrusted Praxent with one small piece of their system: we built the software that interfaces with the scanners.

After testing the new scanning software we created, technicians reported that the software was not displaying the correct location of found defects. Upon this news, Holly and the team double-checked their work and found no errors.

Confident that the scanning software was error-free, she pulled out a tape measure and counted etchings along the scanner model we used to build the software. Her practical move to get to the bottom of the issue resulted in a critical discovery for the client: while our scanner model was, indeed, showing the correct measurements, the measurements etched onto their physical scanner were inaccurate!

Here’s the moral of the story, folks:

1. Carefully testing software is a crucial step in the development process. Don’t overlook it!

2. Find a development team that gets to the bottom of product issues. Holly listened well, asked questions and did her homework to get to the root of a simple error when it would have been easier to just offer a “band-aid” fix.

3. Product developers need to be extremely thorough and pragmatic. At Praxent, we don’t believe in technology for technology’s sake. We care about getting the job done, even if it means getting out the tape measure.